Costa Coffee

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Description:

Costa Coffee is a British coffeehouse company founded in 1971 by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa, as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. Since 1995 it has been a subsidiary of Whitbread, since when the company has grown to over 1700 stores in the UK and abroad. The company's current managing director is John Derkach and Adrian Johnson is Chief Operating Officer. It is the largest coffeehouse chain in the United Kingdom and second largest in the world (behind Starbucks).

History

Bruno and Sergio Costa set up their coffee roastery in Lambeth, London in 1971, supplying local caterers and coffee shops with their slow-roasted blend mocha Italia. Costa branched out to retailing coffee in 1978, when their first store opened in Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, England.

In 1995, the business was acquired by Whitbread and is now a subsidiary of Whitbread Company. In 2009 Costa celebrated the opening of their 1000th store in Cardiff, and is consequently the largest coffee chain in the UK. In 2010 they acquired 'Coffee Heaven', which had a strong presence in central and eastern Europe, for £36m adding another 79 stores. By the end of 2010 the company had overtaken Starbucks in the UK, taking 37.6% of the market share based on turnover.Caterer and......Read More